The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-05-20
FOREIGN TRADE

Rsets Going to Show That CoeAe eenEvil
Gomez frsa the Nature Of The TrsA&
The Hamilton CAM Spectator pre-
sents some matters to the considers
ton of the free traders who are COM
planning of the depressing influence
of the protective system on foreign
trade" The Spectator admit, that for
eign trade is better than no trade. but
queries whether it is better than do
nestle trade. and then goes on to prove
that domestic trade begets foreign
trade, whereas foreign trade does not
beget domestic trade, though under
certain circumstances it may reduce or
destroy it.
To those who assert that because
England has the largest foreign trade
of any nation it therefore follows that
the test of nations prosperity is the
magnitude of its trade with other ma
tions, the Spectator replies that the for
eign trade of Canada is. population
being considered, twice as large as
that of the United States. and yet Cam
ada is not nearly so prosperous a coun-
try as the United States. The reason is
plain; the comparative :2rgeness of
Canada's foreign trade is due to the
fact that it does not make so many of
the things which its people consume as
the United States does, and therefore
has to send more money abroad in pay
ment for them, or more wheat which
had better be consumed at home, were
there people enough to consume it. or
more raw material which had better
be converted into manufactured goods
at home.
Whether foreign trade work good or
evil to nation depends entirely on
what the trade is in. Foreign trade is
good for England. because England
protected her manufacturing and ship
building industries until she was able
to make goods more cheaply and to
ship them more rapidly than any other
nation. So that now every yard of
cotton cloth, every jack-knife. every
glass goblet or porcelain plate which
she sends abroad represents 50 much
money paid to her workmen. and so
much money received as interest on
plant and capital by her proprietOrs of
mills, mines and factories. Every
pound of sugar, coffee or tea or flour
brought into her ports import duty free
cheapens the cost of living, and if it be
got free of export duty from the coun-
try producing it the reduction in cost
of living is still greater.
But reverse the conditions. Suppose
that England exported her coal and
iron ore and imported much of her
wheat ard all her sugar. tea and tobac-
co, is it not plain that her imports
would continually diminish from lack
Of money to buy them with? 1t is be-
cause her coal acquires its second and
third value as the smelling agent Of
metal, the refining agent of smelted
ores, the pOwer-prOducer of the spin
ming mill. and the power-prOducer for
the mill that weaves the spun cotton
that her coal mines are sources of
wealth. 1t is because her iron passes
from its first value of raw ore into its
second of pig, and its third and fourth
of various degrees of manufacture,
that an iron mine in England is more
valuable than a gold mine in the Ural
Mountains. 1t is because the export
trade OF England is in goods that have
paid tribute to industry in many q
stage of manufacture, and her import
trade is in food that she can not pro-
duce, or in raw materials from whose
manufacture she will make profit, that
her foreign trade is valuable.-Chicago
Inter Ocean.